New life.
So innocent and full of limitless potential, and what a privilege I have, to witness it come forth each day I go to work.
This new life-like wet cement awaiting impressions…
An impending imprinting, that will determine a heart’s condition for a lifetime.
And I have spent this day as the nurse, helping this family bring forth new life, but as a result my heart is heavy…
I pick her up and swaddle her, those chubby pink cheeks with fluttering eyelashes, and as I wrap her, I pray.
I pray that in the midst of the chaos, her heart would come to know the One who made her…to one day know the One who knit her together and fashioned her in His own image. I pray that although it is likely that the cement of her heart will harden amidst less than optimal circumstances….
- amidst foul language, and selfishness, and ignorance…
- amidst cohabitating young parents lacking maturity…
- amidst a culture of entitlement and self-absorption…
- and the victim-mentality of her entire family, to which I can certainly testify…
I pray for there to be cracks. At the least, even tiny fissures in the hardened concrete, where His love can still seep in. I beg for a divine intervention of rescue for this new life, in His providential provision.
I hold her, and Oh, how I beg Him…
And yet still…I ask…
- Why the blessing of new life wasted on these?…these parents who could not even begin to qualify for parenting as measured by our “social-work-systems” which actually attempt to qualify people to become parents?
- Why is it enough to possess a functional body whose physiology simply grows new life and yet can’t possibly nurture it?
- Why isn’t there more required, more demanded to bring forth new life? {sigh}
I pull her in tight, and I wrap the last of the blanket around, and my heart cries out to Him:
“Go before her, and beside her, and behind her, and protect her, and please, please, shelter her with your Almighty hand. She is Your daughter, and Your love for her has no limit, and I thank you for her life. Bring her parents to you, O God, I pray.”
And finally I whisper in her ear so small, in the steady rhythm of her sleeping breaths,
“May you come to know Him who is FOR You, despite your beginnings, and may you be one day have NEW LIFE in Him.”
1 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
May you walk abundantly in the newness of life He gives,
How has your new life in Him changed you?
I’m joining Lisa-Jo, over at her site today, to take five minutes and just write without worrying if it’s just right or not. The challenge is to write for 5 minutes flat with no editing, tweaking or self critiquing, with the prompt she gives. And today, her prompt: New….and this post today more than 5 minutes…
Such a thoughtful post! Thank you for it, and thank you for your prayers for this particular new life. I get those questions – there are no easy answers to any of them, are there? But thank you for holding out hope, for offering gospel love in this setting. Just lovely.
Ah yes…gospel love…and the power it brings!
I love this…my daughter is a nurse…her heart was torn at times…the mixed emotions….How beautiful that you spoke these powerful words into her New life….
Blessings~
That is such a beautiful baby, and a beautiful prayer.
beth
What a beautiful post! What a loving heart you have.. if I hadn’t read it again, I would have thought you were praying for your own daughter or niece or grand-child. Thank God for nurses like you who can pray life over a newborn like this!
God bless you!
That is so beautiful, I’m moved to tears. As much as the pain of her little life makes my heart ache I’m filled with wonder that God would be so gracious as to place you at her beginning. A witness to His beauty crying out for her heart! I’m joining you today to lift her up to our gracious Heavenly Father. I pray that His mercy will overshadow her life. That He will guide her steps and whisper love over her heart in the dark. I pray that He will in His wisdom place godly people that speak words of truth in her path and make her heart tender to the things of Him. As He was faithful to bring you to lift her up to His throne at her beginning I pray he will faithfully dot her life with others to pray for her on the journey and that one day her heart will find a home in His love. Amen!
Yes, mixed emotions indeed…
Thank you for stopping by!
Yes, it is such a privilege to share these moments with families…blessing to you!
Thank you for agreeing with me in prayer…God IS so faithful, AMEN!
This is so lovely and such a true example of Godly sorrow. God is using you in an amazing way to be the first light of Him these babies have as they come out of the womb. Your prayers for them are life changing, and God hears them and accepts them. Even though the disfunction is sorrowful, our hope is in Him. He makes all things new. He gives new life. Praise be to God for lifting these sweet lives up! They are blessed by you!
Have a wonderful weekend!!
Brenda
i love this post! i’ve been there before even tho’ i don’t work in maternity now. in eternity we’ll know the influence of these prayers for this sweet babe. they may be larger than you know.
meanwhile, you are an agent of grace in the life of that baby…and her parents. the rest is up to God.
This is so my prayer and my heart as well for those babies. I love the analogy of wet cement…I too will pray for cracks and hope those prayers carry on through their lives. It’s so hard sometimes to see New life entrusted to places we can’t understand.
Our hope IS in Him…and He DOES make all things new!
You are so right…the rest is up to God..and I agree…an agent of grace…such a privilege! Thank you so much for stopping by!
Yes it is hard…and yet our prayers are what will matter. I’m so glad your stopped by! Blessings to you!
Jacque…What beautiful thoughts you put to prayer I truly enjoy reading what you feel…You say it so lovingly..God Bless you Jacque, we need more like you in LDRP…You are so precious…Thank you for sharing so beautifully what I feel in my heart..
Love,
Becky
Oh Becky…THANK YOU…